Ruben Romano will release his second solo full-length ‘imaginary soundtrack’ on Oct. 13 through his own Freek Flag Records. Titled La Vendetta Della Bona, it follows behind 2024’s The Imaginary Soundtrack to the Imaginary Western Twenty Graves Per Mile (review here), and finds Romano (known for his work in The Freeks, Nebula and Fu Manchu) digging into the Italian film genre of giallo with a flair for exploitation cinema showcased along the way throughout the 15-track/41-minute album, set up as a series of scenes or vignettes intended to capture a moment in a movie that, again, doesn’t actually exist. If you caught wind in 2024 of Uncle Acid‘s own giallo jaunt, Nell Ora’Blu (review here), you probably have some idea of where Ruben is coming from in terms of the cinema aspect, but the execution throughout La Vendetta Della Bona takes its own path to get there, as the first single/opening track “Il Baffone” (sort of premiering below) demonstrates, complete with a guest appearance on guitar from Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless et al).
The opener is instrumental, and so is a decent portion of what follows, but Romano‘s mellow-echo vocals on pieces like “Rolling Girl,” the vague spoken word on “A Late Night Again,” the duly breathy for its early industrialism “The First Course” and the penultimate malevolence of “Taken Away” provide some human presence while a range of niches are explored, from ’60s psych in the opening three-song salvo to the krauty synth on “Plant People” and the Talking Heads-y pop-prog of “The World is a Zoo” later. A feeling of experimentalism is never far off, and it’s easy to imagine a piece like “And Then…” taking shape one element at a time over its backbeat as Romano feels his way forward through the song. Elsewhere, “Wheat Pasting” has a bit of twang in its underlying rhythm guitar, but is so peppered around with blips and blops that you can really only call it get-weird progressive in construction, and “Feline Demands” reimagines the birth of New Wave out of gothic keyboard-laced post-punk. Psychedelia is rarely out of reach, but psychedelia is also a broad enough sphere to accommodate as much screwing with it as Romano seems to so delight in doing, and in the context of each song as complementing a ‘scene’ in the theatre of the mind, La Vendetta Della Bona wants nothing for evocation.
“The Good Shake” offers a grounded moment with a forward acoustic strum, but even there, the stank on the bass is enough to convey a sense of the off-kilter, reaffirmed by “Fine Dining” with its drums/percussion off in the ether while the strings hold down the fort. Weirdness pervades from its core, and wihle I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything from a ’70s soundtrack that came across like “Taken Away,” it’s buried toward the end of the album and still cool, so fair enough. It’s supposed to be imaginary, so you can use your imagination and make it fit with the theme. As regards that, La Vendetta Della Bona definitely winds up in a different place than from where it sets forth, and given some of the keyboardy, analog-synthy focus, I can’t help but wonder if Romano isn’t setting himself up for a sci-fi venture next — completing a trilogy of soundtracks would be meta-cinematic anyhow — but in the time being, the shifts in mood and the sheer stylistic breadth on display throughout these tracks make for a rich listen, and wherever it takes you, I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.
“Il Baffone” streams on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
The second installment from the “Imaginary Soundtrack” series by Ruben Romano.
“Il Baffone”, the first single from Romano’s sophomore soundtrack “La Vendetta Della Bona” is The opening track to the opening scene from an imaginary Italian “giallo” Film. Every mystery Needs a sleuth and when it comes to murder, the sleuth usually has a badge to flash and an axe to grind. Under flashing lights, he sits behind the wheel of hopped-up muscle with a snub nosed revolver concealed in a leather under arm shoulder holster. A detective ready for action, with a hardened face that a gambler can only hope for and only a mother can love. Hunting for clues, He’s on the case, he’s cool, he wears “il baffone” and he needs a theme song that proves it.
With a horn section blaring a sirens call and featuring amazing guitar action from the one and only Isaiah Mitchell, “il Baffone” boasts images of a dirty street with the heat coming on. In homage to classic detective themes, Romano offers a gritty lounge styled groove inspired by the cinematic lawmen who always break the rules to catch a killer.
Romano says, “I’ve always been inspired by cop themes such as ”Peter Gun”, “Dragnet”, “Hawaii five-0” and “The pink panther”. with “il Baffone”, I finally got my chance to effectively use a horn section! For this track, I wanted to take this “Giallo” genre and blend in a bit of a “blaxploitation” sound to give it to a specific character. wether he’s a hard-lined, no bullshit detective or the always late and bumbling private eye, there’s one thing that defines him, “il Baffone”, which means, Big Moustache in Italian.”
Tracklisting: 1. Il Baffone 2. and Then… 3. Rolling Girl 4. Dutch Coffee 5. The Good Shake 6. Plant People 7. A Late Night Again 8. Off the Porch 9. Wheat Pasting 10. He’s Playing You 11. Feline Demands 12. Fine Dining 13. The World Is a Zoo 14. Taken Away 15. Nighty Nite
Produced by: Ruben Romano All songs written and performed by: Ruben Romano Except track 11 cowritten w/ Rainer Fraenkel Mixed/Mastered by: John McBain/JPMMASTERING Cover painting by: Gretchen Mahnkopf Inner painting by: Christopher Pecharka
Guest Musicians: -Isaiah Mitchell -Jonathan Hall -Ray Piller -Rainer Fraenkel
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 3rd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
If you can get down with some dancey machine malevolence, Thief‘s new single “Moon and Kill” should land nicely. The song comes from the Dylan Neal solo-project’s impending fifth full-length, Sermons From the Pit, which is out Nov. 27 through Prophecy Productions, whose taste remains enviable, and follows behind 2024’s righteously contemplative Bleed, Memory (review here), on which the expansive electronic-based sound took on a personal and expressive purpose. I don’t know what the new album has in store thematically or in terms of the audio beyond “Moon and Kill,” but you’ll note the church organ near the end of the new track, which could be telling in some way given what the PR wire has to declare below.
Speaking of, here’s all that in blue as usual, followed by the “Moon and Kill” video, duly dark:
THIEF announces new album Sermons from the Pit out November 27th on Prophecy Productions
THIEF, the Los Angeles-based dark electronic project of multi-instrumentalist Dylan Neal, formerly of San Francisco experimental black metal outfit BOTANIST, announces its new album Sermons from the Pit, out November 27 via Prophecy Productions (pre-order). Today, THIEF shares the album’s lead single “Moon and Kill,” accompanied by a new music video.
On the song THIEF’s Dylan Neal says:
“Sermons from the Pit moves through stages of frenetic energy which are tempered by sullen, meditative moments of respite. “Moon and Kill” is a microcosm of that, encapsulating the album’s broader thematic movement from rage to despair and acceptance. The ending is one of my favorite moments on the album, where the vocals are just kind of cooing over a time-stretched organ and choral sample. The track’s voice oscillates between executioner and victim. At the risk of stealing the listener’s meaning away, I’ll speak of the track by saying that when love and trust collapse, the same anger and disbelief experienced by murderers and saints alike are experienced. Which implement do you choose? Weapon or forgiveness?”
Described as “what happens when Portishead and Nine Inch Nails have sex in a haunted church,” THIEF fuses trip hop, industrial, jungle, metal, and experimental electronics with manipulated sacred chants and choral samples, creating an immersive sound Neal calls “Dungeon Pop.” Drawing inspiration from Portishead and Ulver, and earning comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Tears for Fears, THIEF has carved out a singular space between dark electronic and heavy music.
THIEF Tour Dates: 09.03 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar 09.04 – Albuquerque, NM @ New Mexico Goth Fest 10.28 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos (Mothica’s Halloween Extravaganza)
Sermons from the Pit Track List 1. Violent Bloom 2. Moon and Kill 3. Axe Swung Ritual 4. Mirror Mirror 5. Sun Slasher 6. Year of the Leech 7. Sermons from the Pit 8. Comet Sorcery 9. Poison Drum 10. Anaphora 11. Closing Scene
Before founding THIEF, Neal established himself as the hammered dulcimer player for BOTANIST, later contributing dulcimer and bass arrangements to the band’s acclaimed The Shape of He to Come. Their creative relationship continued with the 2021 split release Cicatrix/Diamond Brush. As THIEF, Neal has released Thieves Hymn in D Minor (2016), Map of Lost Keys (2019), The 16 Deaths of My Master (2021), and Bleed, Memory (2024). Sermons from the Pit marks the project’s fifth full-length and its most ambitious and uncompromising work to date.
Equal parts beautiful and brutal, Sermons from the Pit descends into darker, more chaotic territory, exploring fractured love, spiritual collapse, existential dread, and cosmic indifference. Neal describes the album as “transmissions from an unspeakable place”—a descent beneath the surface of consciousness into the murky strata where belief takes shape.
Musically, Sermons from the Pit pairs THIEF’s manipulated liturgical choirs with Neal’s self-developed “Cathedral Clipping” production technique, in which reverberant sounds are repeatedly overdriven through successive gain stages to produce dense harmonic distortion, feedback artifacts, and cavernous textures. The result is THIEF at its most visceral: ethereal choirs, pulverizing rhythms, and towering walls of sound converging into something both deeply intimate and profoundly unsettling.
When I finally got around to hearing the last Queens of the Stone Age album, 2023’s In Times New Roman… (discussed here) — and I do think the title is part of what kept me away from it for like two and a half years — the songs connected and I ended up really digging it. This was a surprise because 2017’s Villains (review here) had left me pretty cold, whereas 2013’s …Like Clockwork (discussed here, review here) is one I still go back to from time to time. Just when I thought I was out…, etc.
“Insignificant Other” is the second single from the forthcoming Queens album, Perfecth — out Oct. 30 in continued cooperation with Matador Records — behind the acoustic-led “Easy Street,” and, though ‘plugged’ in the instrumental sense, it’s also kind of low-key. The comment highlighted by YouTube on the lyric video below said, “it’s like ‘Make it Wit Chu’ after the divorce,” and I could never hope to match either that level of pith or insight, of course referring to the song from the band’s 2007 LP, Era Vulgaris. It also makes sense coming off last year’s Alive in the Catacombs (review here) acoustic EP release, but it seems unlikely that all of Perfecth is so mellow-contemplative in spirit. The safer bet is that at some point, band founder and principal songwriter, guitarist/vocalist Josh Homme will break out the signature Bowie strut.
But “Insignificant Other,” if we want to relate it to classic rock, is like quieter Rolling Stones with the light bluesy bounce and warm compression in the recording of Fleetwood Mac, the latter of course being the ultimate divorce band. The lyrics play off the title, which is a familiar frame from Homme, who often bases songs around a turn of phrase or a play on an idiom turned on its head — see “Obscenery” and “Carnavoyeur” from the last album, “The Evil Has Landed” from the one before, and countless lyrics throughout the last 20 or so years — using cleverness as a mask for emotionality, though one wouldn’t accuse “Insignificant Other” of obscuring what it’s trying to express.
I guess I’m putting this here because I don’t want to let three years go by before I actually get the gumption to listen to Perfecth, having been so wrong in my assessment of how much I needed to hear to the last record. And I know Homme is a complicated character and seems to have been through it in the last few years on a number of levels. He’s been a dick on stage and kicked that photographer in the face, all that prickish rock star whathaveyou.
It’s not that I don’t believe in accountability for people who do shitty things — he was I think duly chastised and monetarily fined for that kick; I don’t know if anyone’s ever pointed out to him the error of his ways for some of the things he’s said on stage, but hopefully someone has — but if you want to apply that standard, there are just so many men in so many positions of power who’ve done so much worse that by the time you got down the list to Josh Homme, we’d all be dead. I’ve never heard one mention of him being in the Epstein files, for example. And if you think that’s a pitiful standard to work from, I couldn’t agree more.
The “Insignificant Other” lyric video follows here, along with the preorder link for Perfecth and the band’s upcoming tour dates in Canada, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Surely more touring will follow in 2027 as well. Below that, there’s the video for “Easy Street” and a clip called ‘Big Chongus Finds a Perfecth Home’ that the band made to promote the album. Engaging short-form video content. Sign of the times and all that.
Enjoy:
Queens of the Stone Age, “Insignificant Other” lyric video
Coming October 30th: Queens of the Stone Age’s ninth album, Perfecth, available on standard black vinyl, CD and as a deluxe limited edition LP.
Perfecth arrives at a moment of hard-won clarity for the band. The record’s nine songs map different forms of love: of family, friends, and others. The loves that break you and the loves that bring you back. The music is fearless and boundless, moody and menacing, gentle and strange. “Insignificant Other” is the album’s centerpiece – sprawling, loose, and supernatural. “Mono” captures the headspinning feeling of heartbreak with a mix that slips seamlessly from mono to stereo and from claustrophobia to widescreen orchestral grandeur. The band remains enduringly, singularly magnetic. It’s art that snarls and seduces in equal measure.
The limited deluxe edition of Perfecth features a gatefold sleeve, including hand written lyrics, stationary, ‘stamps’ housed inside a custom envelope, with room for more. The deluxe edition includes a bespoke piece of art temporarily housed in a custom pocket. The rest won’t be hard to find.
1. It’s Only Love 03:07 2. Insignificant Other 05:53 3. Where The Goth Girls At? 03:28 4. Mono 03:19 5. From the Cliff 02:58 6. Sunday 04:55 7. Easy Street 03:51 8. Phantom Limb 04:55 9. Run Away From the Mob 03:58
Tour dates Tickets available atwww.qotsa.com/ Tuesday, September 15, 2026 Regina, SK, Canada Thursday, September 17, 2026 Edmonton, AB, Canada Sunday, September 20, 2026 Vancouver, BC, Canada Thursday, September 24, 2026 Louisville, KY, US Saturday, September 26, 2026 Las Vegas, NV, US Thursday, October 1, 2026 Sacramento, CA, US Saturday, October 24, 2026 Reykjavík, Iceland Wednesday, November 25, 2026 Tokyo, Japan Thursday, November 26, 2026 Nagoya, Japan Saturday, November 28, 2026 Osaka, Japan Wednesday, December 2, 2026 Singapore, Singapore Tuesday, December 8, 2026 Adelaide, SA, Australia Friday, December 11, 2026 Glenorchy, TAS, Australia Sunday, December 13, 2026 Melbourne, VIC, Australia Tuesday, December 15, 2026 Sydney, NSW, Australia Wednesday, December 16, 2026 Newcastle, NSW, Australia Friday, December 18, 2026 Brisbane, QLD, Australia Sunday, December 20, 2026 Auckland, New Zealand
Queens of the Stone Age, “Easy Street” official video
Queens of the Stone Age, ‘Big Chongus Finds a Perfecth Home’
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 21st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Not to be a nerd or anything, but a third record from L.A.’s Early Moods is a thing I’ve been looking forward to since the first one. The trad-leaning five-piece have torched decades and captured classic-style glories all the while, and with the significant time they’ve spent on the road behind them, they have yet to not step forward from one release to the next, even as albums have to this point come every two years like clockwork.
But if a first album tests the waters and a second reacts to the first, the third is the just-right porridge that results from a band learning who they are in terms of sound and what they want their songs to do. I think Early Moods fit this generalized narrative somewhat, since I’d argue they’ve known what they’re about all along, but the process of refinement is relevant, and one way or another, Ready for the Grave — its first single is the leadoff title-track; hear it at the bottom of this post, hook, chug and all — will be a landmark for the broader journey into the doomed mire that they’re on.
That’s how I feel about that. Only the lukewarmest of takes around here, folks. “Band is cool and record will probably be really good.” Clearly I was not made for today’s internet.
They’re at Euro fests and more this Fall. The following comes from the PR wire, or social media, or somewhere, I can’t even remember:
EARLY MOODS – 🪦 READY FOR THE GRAVE 🪦
Early Moods are back with their best album to date! Out worldwide September 18, 2026.
Los Angeles’ cosmic heavyweights have refined their signature blend of doom metal, NWOBHM, and thrash into their strongest work to date. Recorded with producer Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Tool), Ready For The Grave is a dynamic, live-energy record that hits like they’re in the room with you.
Lead single “Ready For The Grave” streaming everywhere now! —doom-drenched riffing with a punishing pace and lyrics that lament: “Dark forces calling out my name. Forever ready for the grave.”
Says the band: “Thank you everyone for the positive feedback for “Ready for the Grave” we’re stoked to share this record with everyone soon! European Tour coming up soon along with an album release show with the legendary CIRITH UNGOL, hope to see everyone there. We just posted our leftover merch from Sonic Blast on our BIG CARTEL be sure to check it out. Links for everything in the bio, see you guys soon with some more exciting things in the works.. ⚰️🔮🪦”
Art by Mariusz Lewandowski – surreal art
TOUR DATES – OCTOBER 2026 EURO TOUR w/ Mondo Drag
10/1– Karlsruhe (DE) – Psyka Festival 10/2– Pratteln (CH) – Up In Smoke 10/3– Mezzago (IT) – Bloom 10/5– Vienna (AT) – Arena 10/6– Budapest (HU) – A38 10/7– Dresden (DE) – HD Rock & Metal Bar 10/8– Berlin (DE) – Neue Zukunft 10/9– Siegen (DE) – Vortex Club 10/10– Munich (DE) – Keep It Low 10/11– Hamburg (DE) – MS Stubnitz 10/13– Copenhagen (DK) – Stengade 10/14– Enschede (NL) – Metropool 10/15– Utrecht (NL) – DBs 10/16– Osnabrück (DE) – Bastard Club 10/17– Liège (BE) – Desertfest Belgium
*Album Release Show* 10/30– Los Angeles (CA) – Echoplex w/ Cirith Ungol
Posted in Reviews on August 12th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Today is the traditional passing-the-midpoint of the Quarterly Review — hump day, if you need it on humping terms — and indeed, this 50-release QR keeps with that tradition. It’s been almost absurdly easy so far to get through, as the best of them are, and not one day — including this one — has passed without me adding at least two releases from each batch of 10 to my notes for year-end list time. That’s a pretty impressive rate, even for an old softy like me, but the bottom line always is that I hope you find something you enjoy even as I do the same. I think maybe I needed this kind of dig-in more than I realized when I started slating what I was going to be writing about. I guess that happens sometimes.
Let’s keep the thing going.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Warning, Rituals of Shame
Some 20 years after releasing their landmark second album, Watching From a Distance, Patrick Walker-led emotive doom metal pioneers Warning return with a potentially landmark third, Rituals of Shame. The band’s first outing in that long — though Walker has divided his time with 40 Watt Sun and issued solo material as well — is no less grueling of tempo or willfully emotionally laborious for that, and Walker‘s voice remains singularly wrenching such that the 12-minute opening title-track (also the longest; immediate points) feels like it’s pulling you down into the melancholic world that the rest of the 45-minute LP goes on to make, from the plodding “Stations” to, well, the also-plodding “Teacher,” never veering from its purpose or lifting the tonal or melodically-depressive weight once applied. Rituals of Shame is an odd fit for being tagged as ‘brutal,’ but it is its own kind of extremity-of-form nonetheless, and a challenge that sets its terms early and (quietly) dares you to follow the path its songs lay out.
Cambodia-via-UK outfit Mike Bee & The Acid Fuzz Trio follows the psychedelic leaning adventures of its namesake songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Mike Bee (also Last Bee on Earth, Deep Sky Revival, etc.) across White Noise Sound from the blinding garage tone-bite of its leadoff title-cut through mellowstoner and dub of “Goodbye Mary Jane” and “Beyond the Wheel,” riffing bluesier on “Hey Bong!” and getting fuzzy and Bowie-gone-desert-contemplative in “Johnny The Living Star” to set up the fierce groove of “Rise Like a Phoenix” at the end, the seven-song/26-minute album — it’s short, but feels like an LP more than an EP, so I’m making the call myself — has hooks a-plenty and gets playful on “Lion, Sword and Sun” without sounding like a ’60s put-on or something like that, each inclusion establishing its own atmosphere while adding to the admittedly understated breadth of the whole. It’s a weird one, to be sure, but for those who can make their way to its wavelength, the songs will stick to whatever membranes you got.
Teké Collective would seem to be one of several projects under the operating umbrella of Milan, Italy, producer Marino-Angelo Scordilis, and on the new single “Remember and Hope” (7:18), the Collective features no fewer than seven other contributors, including True Canyon‘s spoken word in the second half and a variety of synth and percussion. It is exploratory but aware of the influences from which it draws, and winds up as a kind of world-prog rock. There are psychedelic aspects but it’s too clearheaded to be lysergic, and with all the tight funk in the first half of the song, reminds a bit of earlier P-Funk‘s ability to go anywhere it wants, though the stylistic context here is different. Texture in the two guitars and synth take hold early, but it’s the bass that carries it through the midsection into the slowdown, and the story — a narrative about the power of memory to overcome oppression — is fluidly told with a sense of joy rather than mourning something lost, even though it is that too. There’s a lot packed into one seven-minute single, but it works.
This record came out almost a year ago, so what am I doing reviewing it now? Well, here’s a friendly reminder that music doesn’t have an expiration date, and that I’m only one person and I’m a human being, some stuff is gonna slip by. But with Carson bringing enough hooks and fuzz for the whole class, it seemed like engaging with the eight songs of their confident, strident third full-length, When Gods Know Why, was its own excuse for doing, so there you go. Following 2022’s The Willful Pursuit of Ignorance (review here) with memorable burners like “Engine Down” and the melody-forward grungier twist of “Snow White,” the careening desert rocker “Marion Morrison,” the post-Truckfighters shove of “Drip,” and so on, the Lucerne, Switzerland, three-piece are a reminder of the moving power of heavy rock and roll, and I mean that both physically and in the energetic atmosphere wrought throughout the album all the way up to the blowout at the end of “Only for the Scorned.” Increasingly, they’re a name you can trust. Sorry to have missed this last September. Not sorry to be caught up now.
Polling social media to effect a vox populi, Massachusetts doom folker Buzzard asks the query of our times — “what the fuck?” — over and over again in “Hillbilly Fuckery,” presented in the original and extra-crispy extended versions on this three-songer two-songer, joined with the narrative “Appalachian Blood Bourbon” as the heavy fuzz flows with Christopher Elliott in call and response verses carrying the energy of the song prior (and after), more than filler as complements go, but shorter and somewhat overtaken by all the voices surrounding. The banjo — a regular feature in Buzzard‘s work as the project has taken shape over the last couple years — carries the rhythm along with slide guitar and lumbering, weighted tone, and “Appalachian Blood Bourbon” pairs well for that, its lyrics calling out Hungarian vampires moving to Kentucky and founding an LLC. Buzzard has already announced a Fall LP release, Hush Now, and this as well as other recent singles will feature as CD bonus tracks, which is reasonable considering how much obviously went into their making, answering as well as asking that central question.
Beginning with the 10-minute atmospheric doom clarion “Crimson Skies,” The Unfolding at the End of Light is the debut album from Peruvian four-piece Illwind, which features current and former members of Reino Ermitaño, Arcada, Argul and Death Invoker, and it arrives with a sense of self accordant to the storied pedigree of its component players. Heavy as buildings and modernly grim of mood, the six-song/47-minute paean finds a balance with (relatively) uptempo fare like the shorter, daring-toward-swing “Portal” before digging back in for “God of Sleep” — note the dreamy part in the second half — and 13-minute finale “Lucifer’s Mule,” which shifts from its acoustic guitar/sample intro to a lumbering procession that’s as spacious as it is consuming. But the inclusion of a bonus cover of The Stooges ultra-classic “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” — inarguably one of the greatest riffs of all riffy time — bringing it into their established-by-then stylistic context, blowing it out, and capping with an assault of feedback and noise. Lifesblood, this is.
Forgive me speaking personally for a bit, but there are some records that I just feel lucky to have heard. I don’t think you get to be a blogger for 17-plus years without making some seriously questionable life decisions, but I feel validated in the slacker-stoner/domestic-boheme lifepath I’ve apparently chosen hearing II from Chicago terracosmos explorers Spiral Galaxy, whose bridge between effects drone and organic elements reminds of pocket highlights like Montibus Communitas while singing praise to nature with otherworldly sounds. Wholly immersive, welcoming and warm, even with the building thud of “Wir Fur Sea,” II comes across as ceremonial for more than just the rampant flute, and unflinching in the beauty it captures, with “Future Fauna” taking place across its own bed of psych drone and the brief conclusion “Umbra” as a goodbye that feels all too soon. I missed this band’s 2020 debut. Clearly I need to go back and rectify that, but first I’ll just go ahead and put II on my list of this year’s best albums, with the acknowledgement that any kind of temporal placement is selling short its reaches.
If you’ve ever wondered what Gurt‘s pummeling party sludge might sound like adopting grooves from Powerman 5000 and collaborating with a rapper — and if you have, kudos on your hyperspecific curiosity — the three-and-a-half-minute “No Limit” on the London outfit’s three-song Survival of the Shittest has your answer. The purposeful-in-their-yuck troupe have been at this at least 15 years now and they know with what they’re fucking. EP opener “Live Nation, Dead Scene” (2:49) feels rooted in extreme metal but still finishes with a massive, rolling riff, and the centerpiece title-track — you know they’re English because “shit” is a relative noun, as in “a bit shit”; in US English that’s “Shittiest,” which is clearer but doesn’t sound as fun — takes the violence-of-impact up another notch ahead of the playful-if-you-know-they’re-goofballs nu-metal delve. Gurt don’t owe anyone anything at this point musically — no doubt they’re racked with actual-debt like everyone else — but they’re pretty obviously still having fun crushing and gnashing as they are. Does that make them survivors? Are they the shittest? I don’t know, but they go upside your head hard enough to make you forget to ask.
As to what’s stopping Four — the first release in a decade from UK five-piece Crumbling Ghost — from being neofolk, the answer I think is mostly down to the lack of pretense and the heavier tones surrounding the rootsy vocal melodies. The seven-track offering finds itself embracing shades, hues, spirits, whatever-you-want-to-call-them from post-heavy and the ambience is crucial as “Bows of London” and “Bill Norrie” set the 36-minute LP forth, the latter bringing in the max-heft end of their dynamic range that the later “The Unquiet Grave” will use as a whole-album crescendo, but while “Wassail” is noisier and “Lovely Joan” is like a medieval heavy strut, the key is in their ability to change their approach from one piece to the next without letting go of the folkish vocals overarching. Thus they can get as heavy as they want — and do — and “Last of All Sleep” doesn’t have to feel discordant in its move from acoustics to a grunge wash and “Valtz Efter Tor Lohne” resonates as cohesive even as an instrumental. I don’t know their history or where they’ve been for 10 years, but the combination of atmospheric heavy and folk they harness here is markedly their own.
Danceable and violent in kind, Los Angeles industrial metal trio Purest Form present the six-song/15-minute Resistance EP ahead of appearing at Chicago’s Cold Waves Festival next month. “Beyond Terror” hints in its “Reptile”-y procession toward some underlying Nine Inch Nails influence, but there’s some aspect of retroism about the band’s aggressive take, vocalist Story providing the bite corresponding to the chug of “Animal” and the otherwise drum’n’bass-ish shove of “Bass Resistance” a short time later. This ’90s-informed take finds its ultimate fruition in the concluding cover of The Prodigy‘s “Breathe,” which from what I read is a staple of live sets. Fair enough, but its in the frenetic charge of “Move” that Purest Form demonstrate more what they’re bringing of themselves to push beyond their influences, and as brash as their sound is, one hopes that continues to evolve as they move forward. Intensity and immediacy are assets working in their favor, though, here and on their past EPs.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 7th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Seeing Deathchant live is always a pleasure, and I’m sure the Los Angeles four-piece will be out again in celebration of their upcoming fourth full-length, Kova. The newly-announced album is titled in honor of a friend of the band who passed away, and is heralded by the single/opening track “Enemy,” which is out today, while the album has a Sept. 25 release through RidingEasy Records.
Below, the PR wire tells a tale of purpose and sonic expansion that’s intriguing around a band who’ve always been more about impact in my mind, bridging thrashing aggression and heavy rock groove and tonal presence, but they’ve been at it for at least the better part of a decade by now, so branching out in sound makes sense as well. I haven’t heard the record yet or I’d probably have some opinion or other, but presumably I’ll get there.
Here’s hoping I remember to embed the single before this post goes live. Anyone wanna take a bet on that? I sure don’t:
We are all at the unforgiving whim of life’s extremes. For every moment of overwhelming sorrow, there’s another of indescribable bliss. For every death, there’s a birth. For all of the darkness, there’s just as much light.
Deathchant have never shied away from extremes. Their sound seamlessly oscillates from high-octane rubber-burning riffs and gravelly chants to purring feedback and melodies as expansive as the desert at night. After gathering millions of streams, earning enthusiastic acclaim, and an endless string of packed shows, the Los Angeles, CA quartet—Thomas J Lemieux a.k.a. TJ [guitar, vocals, keys, bass], Doug Stuckey [guitar, vocals], Quinn-George Camacho [bass], and Nick “Joose” Mcdonnell [drums]—explore life’s highs, lows, and everything in between on their fourth full-length LP, KOVA [RidingEasy Records].
Named after their late friend Davey Kova, it’s simultaneously a raucous send-off worthy of a Viking, an introspective look at manhood, and a dyed-in-the-wool badass barnstorming hard rock record.
“To me, Deathchant means very intense brotherhood and friendship,” observes TJ. “I have a truly safe place to express every facet of myself. Even though we’re really heavy, this is also a vehicle for me to explore softer sides of music and wear my heart on my sleeve. For the last nine years, it’s allowed me to be a raw nerve. It was often brutal, because we lived our lives in the world of motorcycle culture, drugs, and partying. At the same time, I always had space for reflection. We implicitly trust one another. It’s rare for a friendship—let alone a four-way working relationship. I recently became a new dad, went through a divorce, and experienced serious loss. All of these massive shifts fed into the music, making it angrier, but more revealing and intimate.”
Back in 2018, Deathchant began to make noise on the West Coast. The group captivated a cult-like audience with the self-titled Deathchant [2019], Waste [2021], and Thrones [2023]. They canvased the globe on tour, playing at festivals such as Psycho Las Vegas, Desertfest Belgium, Keep It Low Festival, and SonicBlast Festival.
While writing KOVA, they said goodbye to its namesake. “My best friend Davey Kova was a dude who white-knuckled life, treated each day like it was his last, took chances, rode fast, and partied hard, but he was the sweetest guy you could ever meet,” sighs TJ. “It’s a weird way to live, yet it’s beautiful. He passed away during the writing process. The record seemed to finish itself after that. The album is a eulogy to not just Davey, but countless friends we’ve lost in the last couple of years.”
TJ helmed the album as producer and sent it off to Kurt Ballou’s legendary God City Studio in Salem, MA where Zach Weeks mixed it. Sonically, it maintained the edge that fans have come to know and expect with some slight tweaks.
“KOVA is different,” affirms the frontman. “I expounded on the lyrics more than I usually would’ve, because the subject matter is so personal. The vocals are also bit dryer and more intentional. You really feel it.”
The opener and first single “Enemy” definitely sets the tone. Feedback groans until a melodic lick pushes the song into overdrive. It culminates on an ominous refrain, “You’re the enemy…Keep the enemy close.” Fret-burning leads entwine at a breakneck pace, bleeding into a screeching solo drenched in wah and echo.
“It’s lyrically related to ‘Mirror’ from Thrones,” he reveals. “You’re ultimately realizing that you are your own worst enemy. So, you’re drowning the ego and being real with yourself about who you are. It’s aligned with the overall concept.”
Then, there’s the two-part title track “Kova (Crawl) Intro” and “Kova (Crawl).” On “Crawl,” acoustic strumming creaks beneath a soulful tear-soaked verse as he laments, “I heard that little boy go quiet, with heavy hearts we said goodbye.” Its heavier companion stomps forward on a swinging rhythm and chugging groove. Offering up a coronation over power chords, the hook booms with bravado, “Call him the king of wild hearts.”
“I was initially writing the song with a vague character in mind,” TJ goes on. “Davey died, and it became clear that the song was fully about him. That’s really when the chorus came to fruition. You’re watching someone slowly kill themselves in a tragic way. The acoustic and heavy versions are equally important. The two parts resemble the ripple effect Davey’s two sides had on people—the dark and the light sides.”
Then, there’s “Worshipper.” A fiery riff smolders in the foreground, giving way to a sample of Shannon Lay above distant gothic strings. “It’s dark as fuck,” he sighs. “I was dwelling in a really pessimistic place with a negative world view. I was depressed and drinking a lot. I had a few people around me who were leaning into Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, religion, and therapy. All of those things may be wonderful. However, they can also give a narcissist an artillery of weapons to use against others. ‘Worshipper’ embodies the weaponization of spirituality by a fake person on a soapbox. You’re worshipping a false prophet.”
“Forgiveness” hinges on bluesy guitar transmissions and a dusty vocal. TJ muses, “Truth is a chamber of bullets and echoes of friends.” Flanked by wailing six-string cries, he accepts, “The curtain keeps closing, but it’s too late to leave now. Goddamn.”
“The lyrics lined up with everything else,” he says. “It’s the human existence of battling addiction and living life to the fullest.”
Ultimately, this is the soundtrack for waking up and going full throttle in pursuit of whatever drives you.
“We’re lucky to be able to tell stories of a legend who’s not with us anymore,” TJ leaves off. “When you have good friends and bandmates around you though, the phoenix rises, and something beautiful comes out of that loss. Life is tough, incredible, and gnarly. Go ahead, embrace who you are, and keep going.”
KOVA is out WorldWide September 25, 2026 on RidingEasy Records
Disaffection be thy name. Saint Vitus were too gnarly to be punks and about as far away from thrash as you could get and still be birthed under a Sabbathian umbrella, and their 1984 SST Records self-titled debut is a middle finger raised to all expectation and provenance. It is high among the greatest doom albums ever made, and these 42 years later, it remains ahead of its time.
But what a time. As I write this, the skies are less yellow from wildfire smoke than they were, say, last night, but the forecast says there’s more coming as the world burns. You can smell it. It’s a sad one to recognize. My government hates and murders its citizens without consequence. We’re so dulled to war that we’re sponsoring and actively engaging in committing at least one genocide. Everything seems to get worse every day, and it’S like that’s accountability or speaking truth to power as rapist men with private space programs strip down the world for parts and sell it to each other.
This is a summer of old trees coming down in thunderstorms. Extreme weather events. There’s debris everywhere where I live, as new condo developments and warehouses loom like the box-shaped future fascism has such a boner for. That’s before you get to the rampant corruption, the dissolving of civil liberties, the hate that drives my country like all of these bigoted adult children in their bigboy trucks. The World Cup final is in New Jersey this weekend. I keep thinking about them playing in the smoke. Did you know trees make oxygen? Does anyone remember?
Saint Vitus‘ Saint Vitus was made for days like these. Its five-song/35-minute run is nigh on untouchable, from the initial splurge of caustic noise from Dave Chandler‘s guitar to the thickened tonal gruel that takes hold even in a relatively speedy cut like that opening eponymous title-track. Saint Vitus‘ “Saint Vitus” is an anthem and a clarion. For doomers, it is indelible. But it’s also among the most disillusioned sounds in all of heavy metal, in no small part because Saint Vitus were bringing together the anti-everything attitude of punk with metal’s aggression, playing a style of music that was never and likely will never be cool and still refusing to compromise on what it is or wants to be. It is a call to ‘drop out of life,’ as another band would put it years later. As an album, it doesn’t see a point to anything because to almost everything there’s none to see. No meme or very-correct take, it is righteously drunk on both cheap alcohol and its own disaffection. It will never take itself, or you, seriously. It is uppers and downers, musically and in terms of pills.
If that sounds like hyperbole, good. Frontman Charles Reagers, Chandler, bassist Mark Adams (R.I.P. 2023) and drummer Armando Acosta (R.I.P. 2010) deserve no less for the grime they conveyed, casting “White Magic/Black Magic” as a dramatic cultish violence in the thud of the latter’s drums and the ritualization of post-Iommi riffing following on from the story of Saint Vitus who in the lyrics dies “for his beliefs.” In the prescient crawl of “Zombie Hunger,” they tie doom to horror, which is a connection that underground subculture continues to make on the daily, and embody it in the stunted tempo of the track itself; the riff inspiring the narrative being conveyed; the riff as central; the riff as The Riff.
You could spend four-plus decades debating what the greatest achievement on Saint Vitus is, and that might honestly be a better way to live through the next 40 years than the actual-world is going to offer, but that’s the point. The sound Saint Vitus made could not have come from anyone else and become what it became. It was a sound from what the squares would call losers. The druggies. The drunks in the ditch, as the band itself would soon enough portray on the Thirsty and Miserable EP as they both trolled and reached out to punkers by covering (their label boss’ band) Black Flag. As Black Sabbath once took downtrodden, working-class tribulations and made them into dark art, so too did Saint Vitus embody their experience of place and time in their music, resulting in an even grimmer sound.
I’ll float the nine-minute “The Psychopath” as the most integral piece of Saint Vitus. The slow-motion threat of violence as the vocals meter themselves to the crawling nod of the guitar. Acosta keeping march on the ride. Adams somewhere in the mix but almost indistinguishable from the all-low-end of Chandler‘s guitar. Reagers gutting out the chorus: “Watch out/Beware/The psychopath is loose.” No, I don’t think he was talking about Ronald Reagan, but “The Psychopath” channels the been-fucked-over sensibilities of somebody steamrolled by the choices of those in power. As a record, it sounds like it’s had its ass beat by cops. “The Psychopath” might have been escapism for those making it, but it embodies that reality just the same, and is accordingly unflinching in its noisy shred near the finish.
They finish with the march and invocation of old gods on “Burial at Sea,” which like the song before it manages to be catch in spite of its tempo, but takes off at a sprint in its midsection, only to crash back into that same nod on the other side of it. The message isn’t of hope. There are no platitudes offered. Saint Vitus looks around, sees life getting worse and says “fuck it” on multiple fronts. It’s only a comforting listen in the way of making you feel less alone as you do the same.
The legacy of this record and the sheer didn’t-know-how-good-or-dynamic-they-were, unprogressive, unpretentious assault of doom it provides continues to spread, and 10 years from now if the internet hasn’t been completely consumed by bots, I might still be here talking about how it meets that particular moment as well. But right now, with particulate matter in the air and microplastics in the water being stolen to cool AI processors, Saint Vitus‘ Saint Vitus exposes and reaffirms the cesspool that lies beneath the veneer of capitalist normiehood, and the album’s omnidirectional disenchantment has never felt so vital.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
The house smells good. Chicken went in the crock pot around eight this morning, after I finished the above, and it’s 11 now. The Patient Mrs. took The Pecan to the Guggenheim I guess about an hour ago. Actually, they left about an hour ago, after leaving once (we call that ‘take one’ around here) and needing to come back for The Patient Mrs.’ phone, which of course I had no way to tell her she’d left charging on the couch. In the meantime, I’d gone to BJ’s and Wegman’s because I’m white as fuck to procure apples and parmesan cheese and whatever else was on the list, so I missed them. If I get lonely, I can text.
That leaves me with the dogs, yes, plural, as The Patient Mrs.’ mother’s now-one-year-old corgi is still with us. This will be I think the second weekend? I don’t know how long it’s actually been. She’s been better this time than last, but is still a lot of work and even more fur on the good portion of the downstairs of the house. We bought a new rug for the living room and we’re waiting to put it out. We only realized after we made the decision that we’d done the same thing last time.
But we lived at her mom’s house rent-free for like eight years. Can’t say shit, and wouldn’t if I could. Hell yes I’ll take care of your pain-in-the-ass dog for however long.
To get back on track, The Patient Mrs. taking The Pecan to the Guggenheim came about basically to give me a break. That was the plan for today even before I got ditched (for a work meeting, to be fair; I wasn’t forgotten like the phone or anything) at UrbanAir yesterday afternoon. I’d had a couple intensive days though and The Pecan needed mom-time, so it made sense I’d stay here with the dogs — …and we’re back; my understanding is that neurotypical people don’t talk like this; how do you get/give context? — get stoned and play Nintendo all day and appreciate the hell out of my life and she’d take the kid out for some mommy-daughter time. Win-win. And they’ll be inside, which is better for breathing and air conditioning.
If you’re keeping up with the school saga, we still haven’t heard. I went swimming Wednesday and like swimming. That’s the update.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. If you’re in Asheville, be safe and have fun at Doomed and Stoned. That is a killer bill, Duel and Howling Giant and all.
Thanks again for reading. Back Monday. Fuck fascism forever.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 16th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
I haven’t seen a tracklisting yet, so I’m not sure whether or not the single “Virginia Werewolf” that Pegzillapremiered here in February will be on their debut album, Disobedience, when it comes out through Ripple Music on Oct. 3, but I guess there’s time between now and then to find out. The Los Angeles trio have a run of Northeastern shows in September around their appearance at RPM Fest in Massachusetts on Sept. 4, and they’ll probably see some nice foliage as a part of that in Vermont and Maine, which is always cool, and they’ll finish in Brooklyn before making their way back to the West Coast. There isn’t a single yet, so you’ll find “Virginia Werewolf” below if you missed it a couple months back, and when I see more I’ll say more about their impending first record.
The PR wire brought the following:
L.A. heavy rock rebels PEGZILLA sign to Ripple Music for debut album release; summer US shows announced!
PEGZILLA “Disobedience” Out October 9th on Ripple Music (CD/digital)
Los Angeles heavy rock trio PEGZILLA have signed with Ripple Music for the release of their debut album “Disobedience” this October 3rd, and announce their East Coast Disobedience tour to kick off in early September!
If Sabbath got hexed by a riot grrrl and dragged through the desert at midnight, you would get PEGZILLA. The heavy rock three-piece out of Los Angeles, California, features Olivia Saperstein on vocals and guitars, Juan Barsse on bass, and Ryan Swain on drums. With hints of doom metal, psych and even punk rock, it’s hard to fit this rowdy trio into a tidy box. Instead, label them one thing: LOUD.
The raucous trio has just inked a worldwide deal with Californian powerhouse Ripple Music for the impending release of their debut full-length Disobedience, due out this fall. With a new single set to drop in the summer, PEGZILLA is gearing up to prove that raw rock fury isn’t dead, as shown by their latest singles Virginia Werewolf and Bootlicker!
As a rowdy warm-up to their upcoming sonic delivery, the band just announced a string of East Coast shows, starting on September 2nd.
Pegzilla upcoming shows 9/2 – Portland, ME – Madrid’s 9/3 – Salem, MA – The Satanic Temple 9/4 – Montague, MA – RPM Fest 9/6 – St. Albans, VT – 14th Star 9/7 – Binghamton, NY – The Bundy Museum 9/8 – Buffalo, NY – The Mohawk 9/9 – Asbury Park, NJ – TBA 9/10 – Philly, PA – Funhouse Gallery 9/11 – Brooklyn, NY – Alphaville
Pegzilla is Guitar/Vox – Olivia Saperstein Bass – Juan Barsse Drums – Ryan Swain
imagine a piece like “And Then…” taking shape one element at a time over its backbeat as Romano feels his way forward through the song. Elsewhere, “Wheat Pasting” has a bit of twang in its underlying rhythm guitar, but is so peppered around with blips and blops that you can really only call it get-weird progressive in construction, and “Feline Demands” reimagines the birth of New Wave out of gothic keyboard-laced post-punk. Psychedelia is rarely out of reach, but psychedelia is also a broad enough sphere to accommodate as much screwing with it as Romano seems to so delight in doing, and in the context of each song as complementing a ‘scene’ in the theatre of the mind, La Vendetta Della Bona wants nothing for evocation.
